Group vows to keep fighting Hays Street project

People attend a vigil, against the proposed Bridge Apartments, held Monday March 26 on the Hays Street Bridge.

People attend a vigil, against the proposed Bridge Apartments, held Monday March 26 on the Hays Street Bridge.

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

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People attend a vigil, against the proposed Bridge Apartments, held Monday March 26 on the Hays Street Bridge.

People attend a vigil, against the proposed Bridge Apartments, held Monday March 26 on the Hays Street Bridge.

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

Group vows to keep fighting Hays Street project

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Neighborhood and community activists sounded a call Monday night to keep fighting a proposed development by the Hays Street Bridge, an East Side icon that, to some, is a symbol of hope.

Former City Councilman Mario Salas, who represented the East Side from 1997 to 2001, said he originally wanted the bridge razed but was told it signified a link between downtown prosperity and the people of color in his community. Since then, he said he has been happy to see it restored, but disappointed by the city’s support of the planned development on the north side of the bridge.

“At the moment, it seems like a city without a heart,” Salas told more than 50 people at a demonstration and vigil on the bridge.

The event followed Friday’s decision by City Manager Sheryl Sculley to administratively approve the concept of a multiuse development, including apartments and retail space, at 803 N. Cherry Street.

Some preservationists and residents say the project would hinder views of and from the bridge, including a vantage of the bridge with the downtown skyline in the background, harming the ambience of the area. It also would negate the dreams many have had of a park by the bridge — a quality-of-life asset that some say could generate more economic development than the project on the table.

In a memo last week to developer Mitch Meyer, Sculley said the city supports a “viable project” that is “respectful of the historic Hays Street Bridge and that addresses design concerns” raised by residents and the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission. The HDRC had twice denied approval of the project — once in December and again on March 9, after the panel was presented a revised design plan.

The Cherry Street land, donated to the city by beer distributor BudCo, was sold in 2012 to Alamo Beer for a brewery. But the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group sued the city, which it claimed had agreed the land would be used for a park. Alamo Beer owner Eugene Simor built the brewery on the south side of the bridge and deeded the land to Meyer. The restoration group has asked the Texas Supreme Court to review a 4th Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the city over use of the land.

Darryl Steadman, son of engineer Douglas Steadman, who worked for decades to save the bridge, said his father had told him just before he died on Feb. 12, that “those crooks” stole the land.

“I don’t know what else to call it except corrupt,” the younger Steadman, speaking of the latest development in the contentious saga, told the group Monday.

Decisions of the HDRC, an advisory board, are subject to staff review. Sculley can reverse the panel’s rulings, as she did in 2013 for a proposed high-rise on top of the historic Joske’s Building near Alamo Plaza, with conditions for the developer to adhere to in response to community concerns about height and scale. The high-rise developer later scrapped its proposal.

In the latest case, Sculley and the city’s historic preservation and planning staff have required 11 stipulations, including design changes to provide a “publicly accessible view” of the 1880s wrought iron, 353-foot bridge. Sculley also has asked Meyer to meet with the architectural review committee of the historic Dignowity Hill neighborhood. Other conditions include screening of mechanical building components from public view and alternations to spacing and height, to preserve sight lines to and from the bridge.

Sculley told the San Antonio Express-News last week that the city is trying to reach a compromise that balances community concerns with the need for housing.